Natasia Sexton

Biography:

Dr. Natasia Sexton, Associate Professor of Music, is Fine Arts Department Chair at Westminster College. Dr. Sexton conducts the Wren Quire, Churchill Singers, and teaches studio voice. In the classroom, she teaches Music of the Western World, Introduction to Music Theory, Theories and Practices of Music Performance and Interpretation, and Music of Resistance, Revolution, and Liberation. Dr. Sexton also conducts the Chancel Choir and youth choir at First Presbyterian Church, Jefferson City.

Dr. Sexton is a choral conductor, clinician, and adjudicator who has presented sessions for the Louisiana Choral Directors Association and Indiana Choral Directors Association. She has conducted the Northeast Arkansas Women's Honor Choir and adjudicated choral festivals in Missouri, Indiana, Louisiana, and California. She has published numerous reviews of choral octavos and audio recordings for The Choral Journal, and in November, 2009 her article "Sara Teasdale at 125: Her Lyric Poetry Still Inspires Lovely Music" was published as the cover article for that journal.

Dr. Sexton is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a DMA in choral conducting. In 2001, she was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award and inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda National Honor Society. At San Jose State University, she studied with Charlene Archibeque and completed a MA degree in choral conducting. Dr. Sexton graduated magna cum laude from Belmont University in 1992 with a BM degree in voice performance. At Belmont, she was inducted in Alpha Chi National Honor Society in 1991.

Prior to her coming to Westminster College in 2009, Dr. Sexton taught at Franklin College in Indiana, at St. Andrew's School in Saratoga, California, and in the Fort Bragg Public Schools also in California. Her high school choirs received Superior ratings at district and state contests. In California, Dr. Sexton worked as a church musician conducting choirs at Burlingame Presbyterian Church and Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church. Beginning in 1996, she conducted the San Jose Symphony Chorus for three seasons where she prepared the chorus for performances of major works by Orff, Brahms, Stravinsky, Mahler, Fauré, and Beethoven. In 1998, she was one of 14 international conductors chosen to study with Helmuth Rilling at the world renowned Oregon Bach Festival.

Dr. Sexton is a member of American Choral Directors Association, National Association of Teachers of Singing, Music Educators National Conference, and College Music Society.